Love Given, Love Received

Valentine’s Day. The day to indulge loved ones with cards adorned with hearts, boxes of chocolates, her favorite flowers, or (horror of horrors), buy a new iron or some else practical.

Whatever history I had read regarding this Day for Lovers, I'd forgotten, so I went to my favorite source for information, WikipediaJ I discovered that Valentine’s Day is not only celebrated in America, but pretty much all over the world, the exception being some Islamic countries who view the day as a Christian celebration and is therefore banned.

There were several men named Valentine who lived during early Christendom and as the unfortunate custom of myriad Christians in those early years, these Valentines died a martyrs’ death. The Roman Catholic Church has declared at least one of these courageous fellows a saint and whatever his story, or the several, meshed together, we get the picture of a courageous, loving, and compassionate man. (There’s not space in this post to even summarize all the interesting information surrounding the history of Valentine's Day.)

As I was reading about how the valentine greeting card business came about in America I remembered some old cards I’d found in my mother’s papers. One is a home-made valentine fashioned by my Aunt Dorothy, probably in the early 1930's as it appears to be the work of a 
young child.

Although the card pictured below now features bedraggled lace, it was once a beautiful gift my dad gave my mom in the early 1940’s Not sure of the giver of the other card but I’m surprised the colors are still so vibrant after nearly 80 years. 

I was sitting on the couch this weekend feeling sorry for myself because my valentine isn’t with me any more. Eventually, I said to myself, “Snap out of it. You have two wonderful sons, thanks to the valentine who is now gone. So I’m deeply grateful for my valentine whom I met 48 years ago.

And then not to be flippant, but I’m so very thankful for God’s Valentine to humankind—Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord, for paying the price of our sins on that Roman cross. Your resurrection means we inherit heaven if we accept your gift of salvation—the greatest valentine of all!